| We’re in the final few weeks of accepting submissions for the Midwest Book Awards. The deadline is March 15. So far, despite the shifted window, we’re doing well — lots of excellent, interesting books have joined the fray. The Midwest Book Awards celebrate the best independently published books from our part of the country, so this is a great time to nominate your own book(s) before the deadline passes! Good news about the book awards of years past, though — Allison (our supremely talented administrative coordinator) has tracked down all winners going back to the 1999/2000 submission cycle. We’re working on getting those prepared for permanent placement on our website. Some interesting and well-known names dot those early winner lists! While boxes are rolling into Jennifer, we’re in a bit of a quiet period between the Scylla of “start the darn awards already” and the Charybdis of “the Gala in St. Paul in June.” It’s been an ideal time, actually, to work to broaden our reach. We’ve connected with the leaders of GenCon, a large gaming convention, to help shepherd a new collaboration track for the Writers Symposium. GenCon runs July 30 to August 2 in Indianapolis; it attracts more than 70,000 attendees, roughly 3,000 of whom participate in the Writers Symposium. So if you happen to be there, drop by the MiPA table to say hi or sign up for any of the events where we’re sponsoring or serving as panelists. One topic that’s gaining some renewed interest is the idea of a publisher-focused “mastermind circle.” It’s basically a time-boxed activity of several sessions over a period of weeks or months with peers, where you share best practices, deepen your business acumen, and build deeper connections with your peers. If you think you’d welcome the opportunity to be in such a group, contact me by email to president@mipa.org so I can gauge interest. Also — don’t forget our member meeting on Tuesday, March 10. Our speaker, Sean CW Korsgaard, will talk about public relations and personal branding, in a conversation that moves beyond social-media plans. Please register for the event; our member meet-and-greet starts at 6:30 p.m. CT and Sean’s talk begins at 7 p.m. And don’t worry, you’ll get more info about the talk and about Sean in an upcoming message. |
| News from Our Bookseller Friends MiPA keeps in contact with our colleagues in the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association and the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association. Their recent newsletters include tidbits that may be of interest to MiPA members, including: – Check out the Top 40 Bestsellers as tracked by the Independent Publishers Caucus.April 24-25, consider visiting the Pulp and Press Lit Arts Fest in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. – The GLIBA Spring Forum is April 15-16 in Cleveland, Ohio. You have until March 6 to make an author pitch to have books or ARCs available for the event, or to support the event financially. [Read the guidelines for more information. – The Indy Indie Book Crawl is back, March 19 to March 22 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Check out IndyIndieBookCrawl on Instagram for details. – MIBA’s Spring Road Trip is May 12/13 in Lincoln, Nebraska. This event might be a good opportunity for more established indie presses to attend, to learn from and network with booksellers. Thank you for being independent together with MiPA. We look forward to seeing you at a virtual member meeting soon! |